Earth will soon get a “mini moon” in about two months, the Associated Press reported.
It is an asteroid the size of a school bus – 10 meters. When it passes Earth on Sunday, it will enter the gravitational field around our planet and circle the globe – but only for about two months.
The celestial body, 2024 PT5, was first spotted in August by astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.
These short-lived phenomena are probably more common than we think, says Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known “mini-moon” was discovered in 2020.
“It happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they are very small and quite difficult to detect,” he said. “Only recently have our research capabilities reached the point where we routinely notice them.”
The object will not be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, Binzel noted.
The discovery, made by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos, was published by the American Astronomical Society.
The minimoon will circle the globe in about 57 days. 2024 PT5 is expected to pass by Earth again in 2055, the Associated Press notes.
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